Mumbai police order probe into 'hate poem' by inspector

The Mumbai police has ordered an enquiry into a controversial poem published in the force's in-house magazine about last year's Azad Maidan protesters.

Deputy Commissioner of Police S S Gholap has been instructed to conduct an enquiry into the poem and how it got published in the magazine Samwaad, said Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh.

Gholap is expected to submit the enquiry report in a fortnight, police sources said.

A woman Inspector, Sujata Patil, called protesters at Azad Maidan 'snakes' and 'traitors' in her poem and suggested that their hands should have been 'chopped off'.

A complaint was filed in this regard with the home department, the police commissioner's office and the Azad Maidan police station on Monday by Ameen Mustafa Idrisi, who runs an NGO, and Nazar Mohammed Siddique, who was arrested for the August 11 violence and is now out on bail.

The complainants sought registration of an FIR against Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police, Administration, Hemant Nagarale, Patil, publisher and other unknown 'conspirators.

Patil has already tendered an apology for the poem that has embarrassed Mumbai police, whose personnel were at the receiving end of the agitators, who had gathered to denounce alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar.

"Sujata Patil has apologised in writing. She has said she did not intend to hurt anybody's religious sentiments. The written unconditional apology would be published in the next edition of Samwaad," Nagarale said on Monday.

Two people were killed and over 50 injured, most of them police personnel and media personnel, when the agitation turned violent.